Backers' Beta Tester

You guys are my people. Metal and hard rock are my drugs. Among my favorite bands for years now: Kamelot, Nightwish, Symphony X, Iced Earth, Killswitch Engage, DragonForce, Disturbed, SOAD, etc. Many of the classics (Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire, etc) generally go without saying. When are we gonna get another Demons and Wizards jam? Christ. More recent obsessions include Babymetal, Unleash the Archers, Ice Nine Kills, Gloryhammer, and all that juicy goodness. There's lots of other bands I could name but I'm tired.

I'm awaiting new albums from basically any of my favorites, but they tend to take several years to make. The struggle is real.

Backers' Beta Tester

How about something a little different: YouTubers that are known for metal. I love me some of these guys. Here are five of my favorites!

Who doesn't know good ol' Eric by now? This man is a guitar wizard and does metal covers of anything you can think of. Also lots of collabs with metal vocalists. Watch all his stuff.

And then there's my dude here who sings metal covers of almost anything. Half his channel is anime themes by this point, if you're into that, otherwise he has tons of other stuff. I chose to embed "The Omen" because despite being rather used to how amazing his voice is, "Omen" STILL floors me.

Then there's Jared. He can play everything, he's an incredible vocalist, and his channel is loaded with hilarious videos playfully throwing shade at the metal fandom. He's turned pissing off djent fans into an art form. I've embedded one of his original songs here, but PLEASE check out his "10 styles of metal" video if you want to lose your sides into orbit.

Another guitar wizard, though I admit I haven't torn through a ton of his videos just yet, but everything I've listened to has been amazing. Especially good ol' Shovel Knight, one of my personal obsessions. He also did an amazing "Megalovania" collab with Caleb Hyles.

Finally, Jonathan Young, who is the best and I love him. Another jack-of-all-trades in terms of vocals and instrument playing, with a definite lean toward pop culture covers. He's also goddamn hilarious. I've of course embedded the greatest cover of all time to one of the best songs of all time, but feel free to check out anything else he does, like maybe "The Hero" or "Be Prepared", for instance?

Backers' Beta Tester

A metal thread on this forum?
It's a shame that I didn't notice it earlier, since I'm extremely slow at discovering new music. I'll share some of the ones that I like.

I also like concepual albums and long songs.

I listen to this one while I wash the dishes, it's the right lenght.

Also, what do you guys think of Ghost BC? I remember seeing them as an opening band when Iron Maiden came to Mexico City. I was indifferent to them at first, but I kinda started liking them after some time. Thing is, the sole mention of their name is enough to make the LA metal community go bananas on you, call you a poser and a laundry list of other things, but hispanic metalheads tend to be obnoxious brats, so it's not really that important.
This song won them a Grammy for best metal performance, after all. It also became my brother's favourite.

Backers' Beta Tester

They're awesome. They have a very old school sound that just really clicks with me and a friend of mine. "Cirice" in particular is a masterpiece, and the music video is an instant classic. Worthwhile award winner.

ALSO HOORAY SOMEONE POSTED HERE maybe I should post some songs again in this thread, just for kicks. Hm. Damnit Kamelot why haven't you released a new single yet

ALRIGHT here's some headbangers for you guys, some of which suggested by my friend who doesn't post here

(this band used to be called Devil You Know, it's headed by former KSE singer Howard Jones)